During World War II and in the 1950s, Volvo built a four-wheel drive off-road vehicle for the Swedish Armed Forces and Belgian Armed Forces, using the mechanical parts from Volvo’s small trucks, combined with much of the body from the PV-800 series Sow.

The cars were updated with the slightly stronger ED engine and the column-mounted gear lever from the PV 60.

The recently introduced P120 Amazon was too small to serve as a taxicab and there were almost ten years before Volvo presented a new car, suitable for taxi use, the 144.

It was powered by the well proven 90 hp (67 kW), 3.67 litre inline 6 mated to a Volvo E9 gearbox.

The military version used to be called "Terräng-Sugga", though today the enthusiasts of this particular model seem to have somewhat high-jacked the nickname "Suggan".